Rev it up!

"Thor's Hammer" in action.

Watch at 18 seconds it really revs up!

Merry Xmas!

Merry Xmas to all of you following my bike build journey!

 Concept, photography & re-touching: Smelvis Broholm

Art direction, set build, styling and cat wrangling: Nixie the Xmas Pixie Skobier

Talent: Rogue and Thor's Hammer

Coiled up!

Today I had the opportunity to tack a coil mount to the frame. AS you can see I need to be somewhat cautious when welding in a second story carpeted apartment!

Now I'm looking to see if there are any suitable cloth wrapped plug leads that are suitable for my Pamco electonic ignition.

The view

It dawned on me the other morning whilst making my coffee, that I really am lucky to have had the opportunity to build my dream bike.

Here's the view of "Thor's Hammer" as I left the kitchen with the morning sun streaming through the balcony windows.

Feeling Guarded!

After much farting around I finally made the effort to add a chain guard to the bike.

With very strict Australian laws, I simply had no choice but to utilise one. My greatest concern was that it needed to be a neat and tidy guard that when added to the bike looked stock.

I purchased a Royal Enfield repro guard from India as my starting point as it was a clean and simple design that was long enough to do the trick. I removed the old tabs, remounted one and  made a fresh one for a mount to the left side engine cover.

I'm pretty happy with the results, with it sitting well and mounted as solid as a rock.

What a breeze!

A couple of days ago, the package that I was really looking forward to finally made it into my hot little hands.

The custom bent exhaust headers from Gordon Scott Engineering had arrived and looked amazing. The best thing about them was that they fit perfectly, straight away, with absolutely no modifications required.


Scott did a brilliant job of turning my pictures and measurements into reality. He was so easy to deal with and a genuinely great  asset to the XS650 community.

Thanks Scott!

Just because

Heading out to work the other day, I just couldn't resist taking a pic with the morning sun peaking through the window.

I took this shot mainly as a reminder that I've got to pull my finger out of my ass and get it completed sooner rather than later!

Heading in the right direction!

After a couple of emails checking on some measurements, Scott at Gordon Scott Engineering has already completed my custom headers!

He sent through some teaser pics prior to shipping. So far they certainly look the goods!

Hopefully they'll fit right up without too much fiddling around.

Clean sweep!

After having to put the build on hold for way too long, I finally had the opportunity to order some engine parts from MikesXS and made some inquiries into purchasing some headers.

With all of the positive talk about Gordon Scott Engineering on the XS650 boards that I visit, the choice was obvious. I wanted to deal with a professional outfit that were XS650 friendly, as well as eliminate the need to disassemble and re-assemble the bike to get it in and out of the second story apartment to get pipes made by a local shop. My time and effort would have been much more than the great deal I received.

As it turned out Scott actually already had a product that was close to what I required.I did however feel that they were not going to be a straight fitment, which lead me to take some shots and measurements which I sent with a quote request.

As it turned out Scott was very quick to respond to my inquiry, and very helpful when it came to pricing up my custom headers.

Here's some pics of my measurement technique, which called for the nearest broom handle to be shoved into the muffler. I chose this novel approach as I suspected it would be the best way to visualize what I required with my header design.

 

RIP - Pirate

Yesterday I lost my best mate Pirate after having to make one of the toughest calls in my life. Unfortunately over the last year he developed renal failure which progressively become more aggressive.

Below are some shots of us together moments before he had to leave in peace.

I miss you my boy.

Here's some shots of Pirate over the last 10 years or so.  My mate was always there with me through thick and thin.